<p>When high school kids take an overnight trip, what should chaperones be responsible for?</p>
<p>Should they enjoy the sights with the kids during the day, and then turn in at 11 p.m. and be assured that the students will be responsible and abide by the rules?</p>
<p>Or should they patrol halls and make sure that students are asleep and in their rooms after lights are out?</p>
<p>My daughters high school believes in the first case. And since students on a recent field trip were enjoying alcohol and pot at 2 a.m., and wandering around New York City, while the chaperones were asleep, all future field trips have been suspended.</p>
<p>I have no vested interest in the policy, since my only kid is graduating. But Im curious how other schools handle this, and what other parents think the role of chaperones should be. And if you agree with the schools policy how does one ensure that 14-18 year olds follow the rules when there is no adult supervision?</p>
<p>Personally when I send my daughter on an overnight, I assume that chaperones are acting in loco parentis and making sure my kid is in bed, even if that means being up at 3 a.m.</p>
<p>I learned the hard way that not all parents who chaperone and not all teachers who chaperone do that. My DS went on a HS trip to Egypt. When he returned he told me stories of staying up very late because he was concerned about girls on the trip being on their own out very late. He came home and was like, “Mom, have they never heard of Natalie Holloway?”
I actually have decided my DD will not go on a trip with that teacher.<br>
The schools policy may be one thing but the chaperones may do another. In the case of DS’s trip, the school will not sponsor trips overseas so the teachers put them independently…which is interesting because the kids come home full of info. about these trips and really push to go on them. It makes it difficult for parents to say NO. The teachers get a free trip by organizing the trip…</p>
<p>Our middle school takes the 8th graders to D.C. every April. It is run very securely. Kids are split into groups and get to sign up for places of interest. They may not change their minds later. They are sealed into their hotel rooms at 11:00 p.m. Doors are taped on the outside, and any tape found broken results in a suspension from school. There are contracts to sign on both students and parents parts. There has never been an infraction in 11 years that I have lived here.</p>
<p>I cannot imagine a school sponsored trip to Egypt!!! Imagine taking on that kind of liability. A teacher in our school tried to organize a trip independently once, and the school put a stop to that. </p>
<p>I have chaperoned one high school band camp, and we took our duties very seriously. It was in a camping location, and we sat up all night, in pairs, with soft music, blankets, coffee and gossip. Kids were trying to sneak out of their cabins not realizing that the old fogeys were watching.</p>
<p>Actually, sly, I would think your school system would be leaving themselves open to all sorts of liability issues – what if something had happened to any of the kids wandering around NYC at night? In today’s world, sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen.</p>
<p>I only have experience with band trips. The kids rooms are duct taped shut and parents stay up all night, in shifts. no problems. However, on one memorable eighth grade class trip 10 years ago to Washington DC a couple of groups of kids and chaperones decided to ditch the Smithonians and go to the hard rock cafe and then shopping. That was the last straw, and that was the last class trip to DC. I agree that the chaperones are to act as in loco parentis and the teachers need to keep everyone on the same page about what is expected and permitted.</p>
<p>Wow. I may have to pm some of you to get the names of your schools, because this is so different (and better, I may add). </p>
<p>Frankly, I was shocked when my daughter came home and told me that she had roomed with a chaperone, who went to sleep at 11 p.m. </p>
<p>What’s even more disturbing is that the school is now in an uproar about this, and when my daughter suggested to teachers that perhaps the chaperones should have more responsibility, the teachers very rudely put her in her place and told her it was not their job to be up at 2 a.m. monitoring kids. Huh?</p>
<p>I agree that it is a potential liability issue. The school now seems to think that the solution is figuring out how to get the teenagers to obey the rules in some sort of honor code system.</p>
<p>Why not just put a piece of tape on the outside of the hotel room doors?
Get a chaperone to do a little “walk about” at 2 and 4. It only takes a few minutes and then they can go right back to sleep. They can tell immediately if the ‘seal’ has been broken.</p>
<p>Our very large high school does not use parents as chaperones on class trips, band trips, etc. Only teachers are chaperones. For the junior class trip to Williamsburg and Bush Gardens, attended by several hundred students, the luggage is searched for contraband before being put on the bus. Tape is put on the outside of the hotel room doors at bedtime, as mentioned by several others above. I am aware of two incidents of misbehavior on trips which have led to severe consequences for the students involved. On a band trip to Mexico (or the Bahamas, I can’t remember), a student purchased a “bong” or similar item and maybe some marijuana and was caught. He was suspended for the rest of the year and was required to go to an alternative school for the first half of the next year. The other case was a History Club trip very near the end of the school year, which was a smaller group and run a little more loosely. A group of senior boys, all very good students and one was the salutatorian, hired a stripper or similar to come to their hotel room. They were caught and punished pretty severely.</p>
<p>One local public school (6-12) runs multiple off-campus field trips, including trips to France and Germany. The rules are extremely clear, and students who break them are never again permitted on an off-campus field trip. Even faculty off duty and parents are not allowed to drink while on trips, for example (which kind of changes one’s perspective on a trip to France, IMHO).</p>
<p>They also use the tape across the door method. Teachers make a point of buying weird tapes (often around Christmas), so that students can’t just replace the tape.</p>
<p>Now I’m feeling like a really bad parent. I go to bed at 11 and don’t check my teenager’s room once during the night. Do parents really put tape on their kid’s doors and check them in the middle of the night? Or do people assuming on class trips that all the parenting done over the many years just flies out the window and these children, who are well behaved at home, will be ■■■■■■■■ the streets at 2 am unaccompanied?</p>
<p>We did a trip to Chicago with the drama club with my D’s school over Thanksgiving break. The advisor (a teacher at the school), his wife and about 5-6 other adults went along with about 100 kids. They used a tour company that sends an adult chaperone along with the buses and drivers. We as adults help out with the kids during the day if they have to split up for the day, but at night it is the responsibility of the “hired” chaperone to patrol the halls out night. Tape has been used for some cases where we knew in advance that the kids in that room may cause problems.</p>
<p>I also used to help out with a community based show choir. When we went to competitions, we would be known to stay up until 3 a.m. to make sure everyone was down for the night and then tape rooms we thought may cause problems. All the kids knew which rooms the adults were in if they needed someone during the night i.e. someone getting sick.</p>
<p>Someone needs to be responsible for the kids the entire time of the trip.</p>
<p>UCDAAlum…
When I chaperoned a trip a couple years back, I was shocked, shocked! at the way some of the kids acted. It was an eye opener. It was as if this was the first time some of these teens ever got out! All it takes is a couple (out of a large group) to occupy most of your time/energy. Interesting thing was, it was some of the kids who were on the shortest leashes at home that went the wildest.</p>
<p>Sneaking around at night, skipping the planned activities to go hang out by the pool or in the game room, walking around the parking lot (why?) at night, 14 year old girls meeting older guys from outside of the school group (strangers) and making plans to ‘meet’ later on…</p>
<p>Looks like there was some cross posting. See above UCDAlum! </p>
<p>I don’t think it’s crazy at all to think that the kids would want to get out of the hotel, sleep with their boyfiend/girlfriend, whatever. But, the tape and knowing that parents are lurking adds a level of safety so kids like the OP’s child are not staying up all night worrying. As we all know, kids think they are invincible and test limits. Even my perfect kids have been known to do stupid things if they are given too much rope.</p>
<p>UCDAalum82
It’s not your kid you have to worry about. It’s the other ones whose parents don’t care what they do or when they come home that you have to worry about. It will be their parents who are first to sue you for not watching their kid when the kid has been doing bad things their whole life. The good kids know how to act on a trip. The bad kids will be the ones to see how much they can get away with.</p>
<p>Now I feel a bit nervous. My D is on a school band trip in New York City this week. She is only a freshman.</p>
<p>…She better not be meeting older strange boys…:eek:</p>
<p>…And she is not perfect by any stretch. Yikes. :o</p>
<p>But she has called and or texted me at least twice a day with her cell phone. She actually has texted me a few pictures she took with her cell phone. This way, I can track her down! ;)</p>
<p>^^^And I would imagine in this litigious society, the chaperones would be named in the lawsuit, if something happened to one of these children under their watch.</p>
<p>Mine went on no school sponsored trips in high school. But in middle school, they went to various places like DC and NYC. The school (as part of the package) hired a “service” to hall monitor the floor from 11pm until 6am. It must have worked out well, because I heard that a few of the boys tried an elaborate plan to sneak by the “guard” and were caught and sent back to their room.</p>
<p>I chaperoned other trips with high school age kids, not school supported–senior cruise, AAU basketball tournaments, soccer tournaments, etc. It was always so tiring as I worried so much that I was up constantly checking on the whereabouts of my charges. Of course some of the other parents didn’t have the “worry gene” and went out clubbing!</p>
<p>Ds have always attended schools who believe in experiential education, so lots of field trips.At least one major one each year.
Junior year D#1 went on a college tour in the northwest ( they also have them for east coast)- & went to Costa Rica for a few weeks.
No parents :(,but extra staff goes along to help.</p>
<p>D#2 went to Ashland ( ore) in 7th grade for shakespeare festival- they camped, parents went I didn’t.
Parents had own tents and I think there was some getting up in the night, the parents that were chaperoning tended to be on the permissive end, but I knew D wasn’t in that group of kids that would plot.
She also went to Hawaii the next year- also camping, lots of parents going- but not the same situation as being in the middle of a city
( They were in Lahania)
Also that year, 8th grade trip to NYC/DC , parents going, parents apparently doing more of the chaperoning than teachers from reports, but I wasn’t worried as daughter was in group chaperoned by a mom, who had much experience traveling with teens ( wife of the music head at Ds current high school- which does a lot of traveling)</p>
<p>I don’t know about tape- in DC they stayed at George Wa university and in NYC in a hostel in Harlem.</p>
<p>I did go on a week long trip at a YMCA camp where they had ropes course challenges etc. I had a group of 12 kids by myself during the day and about 8 girls in my cabin at night.
No doors on cabin & girls apparently thought I was born yesterday but I proved I wasn’t to their disappointment.
However, on that trip the teachers slept during the day and stayed up at night, after my warnings to them of “events” being hinted at by the 14 going on 21 year olds.</p>
<p>I thought the trips were exhausting but great fun, of course I only went on the camping trips, I might be a lot more exhausted trying to keep tabs on them in a city</p>
<p>Think about it though. We send our kids to sleep-away soccer, volleyball etc., do we REALLY know the level of chaperoning and security. Even CTY-Johns Hopkins, kids run around, things may happen!!! While they may not be running around the streets of NYC or Cairo, I would be equally concerned about boys and girls sleeping arrangements after the counselors went to bed.</p>
<p>I don’t know if your girls read the Traveling Pants series, but I remember being :eek: during one book when a main character at a soccer camp obviously ( to me- it may have went over Ds head at the time) had * sex* with a counselor.</p>
<p>^ Great. Not only is my daughter running wild in the streets with strange boys this week in New York City, but she is also a soccer player. She is scheduled to go to a couple of soccer camps this summer. :o</p>
<p>I’m beginning to think life WAS easier when big brother was this age. :rolleyes:</p>